The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-11-24
TALMAGE'S SERMON,
Tho Weekly Discourse Of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher
Subject. "ParcntaI Blunders.,

WtuUy' u Sulnuel W., TO-
This is the end of long story of parental
neglect. Judge Eli was good man, but he
let his two boys, Hophni and Phinehas, do as
they pleased, and through over-indulgence
they went to ruin, The blind old judge,
ninety-eight years OF age, is seated at the
gate waiting for the news of an important
battle in which his two sons were at the front.
An express ia coming with tidings from the
battle. This blind nonagenarian puts his
hand behind his ear and listens and cries;
what meaneth the noise of this tumultN
An excited messenger, all out of breath with
the speed, said TO him: sour army is defeat
cd. The sacred chest, called the ark, is cap
tured, and your sons are dead on the field"
No wonder the father tainted and expired
The domestic tragedy in which these two
sons were the tragedians had finished its fifth
and last act. "Ho fell from of the seat
backward by the side of the gate, and his
neck brake and he died, fer lie was an old
man and heavy
Eli had made an awful mistake in regard
to his children. The Bible distinctly says:
His sons made themselves vile and he re-
strained them not" Oh, the ten thousand
mistakes in rearing children, mistakes of pa
rents, mistakes of teachers in day school and
Sabbath classes mistakes which we all make.
win it not be useful to consider them!
This country is going to be conquered by a
great army, compared with which that of
Baldwin the First, and Nerves, and Alexan-
der, and Grant, and Lee, all put together,
were in numbers insignificant. They will
capture all our pulpits, storehouses, factories,
and halls of legislation, all our shipping, all
our wealth, and all our honors. They
ity, from the United States Presi-
dency down to the humblest constabulary
of everything between the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans They are ON the march now,
and they halt neither, day nor night They
will soon be here, and all the present active
population OF this country must surrender
and give way. | refer to the great army of
children. Whether they shall take posses
sion OF everything for good or for bad, de-
ponds upon the style Of preparation through
which they pass on their way from cradle to
throne. Cicero acknowledges he kept in his
desk collection OF prefaces for books, which
prefaces he could at any time attach to any
thing he wanted to publish for him
self or others; and all parents and
teachers have all prepared the pre-
face Of every young life under their
charge, and not only the preface, but the APP
pendix, whether the volume be a poem or a
farce Families and schools and legislatures
are in our day busiiy engaged in discussing
what is the best mode of educating children.
Before this question almost every other
dwindles into insignifcance, while de-
pendent upon its proper solution is the well
fare of governments and ages eternal.
Macaulay tells Of the war which Frederick
the Second made against Queen Marie
Theresa. And one day she appeared before
che Diet, wearing mourning for her father,
and held up in her arms before them her
child, the ArchduSe This so wrought upon
the officers and deputies of the people that
with half drawn swords they broke forth in
the war cry; Let US die for our Queen,
Maria Theresaw So, this morning, realizing
that the boy Of to-day is to be the ruler Of
the future, the popular sovereign, | hold him
before the American people to arouse their
enthusiasm in his behalf, and to evoke their
oath for his defense, his education and his
sublime destiny.
If a pareut, you will remember when you
We're aroused to these great responsibilities,
and when you found that you had not done
all required after you had admired the tiny
hands, and the glossy hair, and the bright
eyes that lay in the cradle. You suddenly
remembered that that hand would yet be
raised to b,eSSs the world with its benedic-
ton, or to snite it with curse. In Aros-
tos great poem there is a character called
Ruggiero, who has a shield of insufferable
splendor, but it is kept veiled save on certain
occasions, and when uncovered it startled
and overwhelmed its baholder, who before
had no suspicion Of its brightness. My hope
to-day is to uncover the destiny of your child
or student about which You have no especial
appreciation, and flash upon you the splen-
doris Of its immortal nature. Behold the
shield and the sword Of its coming conflict!
l propose in this discourse to set forth what
lconsider to be some Of the errors prevalent
in the training of children.
First: remark that many err in too great
severity or too great lenency of family gov
eminent. Between parental tyranny and
ruinous laxativeness of discipline there is
medium. Sometimes the father errs on one
side and the mother on the other side Good
family government. is all important. A-,
archy and misrule in the domestic circle is
the forerunnor Of anarchy and misule in the
State What a repulsive spectacle is a home
without order or discipline disobedience and
impudence, and anger and falsehood lift
ing their horrid front in the place which
should be consecrated to all that is holy and
peaceful, and beautiful. In the attempt to
avoid all this, and bring the children under
sometimes carried themselves with great
rigor. John Howard, who was merciful
to the prisons and lazarettos, was
merciess i'll the treatment of his
children. John Milton knew everything but
how to train his family. Severe and unrea-
sonable was he in his carriage toward them
He compelled his daughters to read to him in
four or five languages, but would not allow
them to learn any of them, for he said that
one tongue was enough for a woman Their
reading was mechanical drudgery, when, if
they had understood the languages they read,
the employment of reading might have been
a luxury. No wonder his children despised
him, and stealthiiy sold his books and hoped
for his death. In all ages there has been need
OF a society for prevention of cruelty to chill
dren. When Barbara was put to death by
her father because she had countermanded his
order, and had three windows put in room
instead of two, this cruel parent was tyre
of many who have acted the Nero and the
Robespierre in the home circle. The heart
slckens at what you sometimes see, even in
families that pretend to be Christian-per-
petual scolding, and hair-pulling, ear-box-
ing, and humping, and stamping, and fault
1ndlng, and teasing, until the children are
vexel beyond bounds, and growl in the
sleeve, and pout, and rebel, and vow
within themselves that in after days
they will retaliate for the cruelties
practiced Many home has become as full
ofdispute as was the home of John O'Groat
who built his house at the most northery
point in Great Britain. And tradition say!
that the house had eight windows and eight
doors, and table of eight sides, because HI
had eight children, and the only way to keev
them out Of bitter quarrel was to have
separate appointment for each one of them.
That chiid's nature is too delicate to b,
worked upon by sledge-hammer, and gouge
and pile-driver. Such fierce lashing, instead
of breaking the high mettle to bit and trace
will make it dash off the more uncomfortable
not fit for use till they have been hetcheled ant
swingled. Some one talking to a child, said
II wonder what makes that tree out there 81
families all the discipline is concentrated upoI
one childs head If anything is done wrong
the supposition is that George did it. II,
broke the latch He left open the gate. HI,
hacked the banisters. He whitfield sticks OF
the carpets. And George shall be the scape
goat for all domestic misunderstanding anc
suspicious. If things get wrong in the Gull
nary department, in comes the mother ant
says, angrily: "Where is Goorge?n II bust
ness matters are perplexing at the store, il
comes the father at night and says, angrily
ssWhere is Georgef In many a Household
there is such one singled out for suspicion
and castigation; all the sweet flowers of hi
soul blasted under this perpetual northeas
storm; he curses the day in which he wa!
born. Safer the child in a bank of bulrushe
on the Nile among crocodiles than in al
elegant mansion, amid such domestic
gorgons A mother was passing alons
the street one day, and came up t.
her little child, who did not see he
approach, and her child was saying to he
playmate: You good-for-noih hing hitl
scamp, you come right into the house thi
minute, or | will beat you till the skin come
Inv